Instagram’s new longform play is aimed squarely at the television set, not the phone screen. On Monday, the platform announced Features, an offering that will let select creators in the U.S. post content up to 90 minutes long. The move is a direct response to YouTube, which accounted for 15.8% of all U.S. TV viewing in August — more than double the next most-watched platform, Netflix.
The TV math behind the move
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri framed the bet in cultural terms. “It’s very much about TV,” he told Colin and Samir. “It’s not about the time spent as much as the cultural relevance. We want to be the most culturally relevant platform, and to do that, we just need to show up where people are.”
Creator TV — Spotter’s term for longer-form creator content — is already a television behaviour. More than half of it is watched on connected TVs, and Spotter estimates it generates roughly 26 billion hours of U.S. viewing annually.
- 15.8%: YouTube’s share of all U.S. TV viewing in August, more than double Netflix.
- 26 billion: annual U.S. viewing hours for creator TV, per Spotter.
- 60% vs 39%: completion for 30-second skippable ads in creator content 22 minutes or longer versus 8-12 minutes.
That completion gap is the advertiser argument for longform. Longer creator videos are not just more viewing time; they hold attention through the ad break at a meaningfully higher rate.
Where Instagram still has to clear the bar
Meta launched Instagram for TV last December, and the company says early performance has been encouraging, though it declined to share figures. The challenge is structural. YouTube has been building TV behaviour since 2009, and its current living-room push only really accelerated about three years ago.
The sharper gap is monetisation. YouTube pays creators through the Partner Program, with revenue sharing. Instagram does not have a direct creator payment equivalent; creators typically earn through brand partnerships, and Features does not add revenue sharing. For creators deciding where to put longform hours, that currently favours YouTube.
There is a timing window. YouTube will tighten its Partner Program rules in February. If Instagram can make Features attractive before that change constrains newer creators, the longform map could scramble.
What to watch
The same week, Tubi and TikTok announced 10 longform creator series for Tubi, another signal that creator-origin TV is being pushed onto ad-supported streaming. For media planners, the practical read is to treat creator TV as a separate inventory tier, not just social video. Test 22-minute-plus placements where the data shows stronger ad completion, and watch whether Instagram adds transparent payment and measurement before shifting budget.
Source: TheWrap
